"Don't halt again until you overtake me." So I made every one of the mounted men take up a man behind, and the rest of the unmounted men I ordered into the carts, including Tugendheim's Syrians, judging it better to overtax the animals than to be too long on the road.

And the long and short of that was that we overtook Ranjoor Singh at about four that afternoon.

Our animals were weary, but the men were fit to fight.
Ranjoor Singh ordered Abraham to take the Syrians and all the carts and horses down into a hollow where there was a water-hole, and to wait there for further orders.

Tugendheim was bidden come with us on foot; and without any explanation he led us all toward a low ridge that faced us, rising here and there into an insignificant hill.

It looked like blown sand over which coarse grass had grown, and such it proved to be, for it was on the edge of another desert.